Tanzania: It is time to act: Deaths and morbidity from unsafe abortion

It is time to act: Deaths and morbidity from unsafe abortion

Kenneth Simbaya
Dec 30, 2019

Reports have it that, despite family planning being mentioned as one of the most life-saving, empowering, and poverty fighter in families and nation at large; contraceptive prevalence in the country has remained low with statistics showing that only 38 percent of married women are using the services.

According to the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey 2010, less than one in 10 (nine percent) of sexually active youth who want to avoid pregnancy use modern contraceptives. Worryingly, 22.8 per cent of young women between the ages of 15 and 19 are mothers.

Continued: https://www.ippmedia.com/en/features/it-time-act-deaths-and-morbidity-unsafe-abortion


USA – ‘Our doors stay open’: Brookline’s abortion clinic shootings, 25 years later

‘Our doors stay open’: Brookline’s abortion clinic shootings, 25 years later

By Abby Patkin
Posted Dec 30, 2019

In Brookline, a lot has changed since a gunman opened fire at two clinics 25 years ago. But there is still more to come.

He walked in and double-checked he was in the right place. Then John Salvi III pulled out his rifle and fired.

Continued: https://brookline.wickedlocal.com/news/20191230/our-doors-stay-open-brooklines-abortion-clinic-shootings-25-years-later


Ireland – Less than 15% of GPs sign up to provide abortion services

Less than 15% of GPs sign up to provide abortion services
Doctors providing new service have overwhemingly positive view

Dec 30, 2019
Paul Cullen, Jennifer Bray

One year after its introduction, the number of women using Ireland’s new abortion service remains a closely-guarded secret.

Official figures will not be published until well into next year, but the estimates from those involved in providing the service have been reduced from an initial 10,000 a year to about 5,000. The vast majority are being performed by GPs prescribing pills in the community.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/less-than-15-of-gps-sign-up-to-provide-abortion-services-1.4127530


Ireland – Coombe hospital obstetrician appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion

Coombe hospital obstetrician appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion
Services are available in 10 out of 19 maternity units, and through 347 GPs in the community

Dec 30, 2019
Paul Cullen Health Editor

Dr Aoife Mullally, an obstetrician at the Coombe hospital in Dublin, has been appointed HSE clinical lead for abortion, a year after the service was introduced.

Dr Mullally’s main task in the part-time post will be to ensure the roll out of termination of pregnancy in more maternity units, and in GP surgeries and other community settings.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/coombe-hospital-obstetrician-appointed-hse-clinical-lead-for-abortion-1.4127467


Ghana – Wawa Aba platform to revolutionize access to reproductive health

Wawa Aba platform to revolutionize access to reproductive health

Dec 30, 2019
James Amoh Jnr.
Ghana News Agency

Historically, adolescent reproductive health has been overlooked and largely ignored despite the high risk the country faces for its neglect.

Some of the challenges faced by adolescents include unplanned pregnancy and parenthood, difficulties in accessing contraception and safe abortion, high rate of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and deaths during child birth.

Continued: https://ghananewsagency.org/features/wawa-aba-platform-to-revolutionize-access-to-reproductive-health-161975


Ireland – Simon Harris to give free contraceptives to women aged 17-24

Simon Harris to give free contraceptives to women aged 17-24

Stephen O’Brien, Political Editor
December 29 2019, The Sunday Times

Simon Harris, the health minister, is preparing to provide free contraception to Irish women, starting with making the pill, condoms and long-acting reversible contraceptives (Larcs) available for those aged 17-24, in a bid to reduce unwanted pregnancies.

The minister is expected to bring plans to cabinet next month to give free contraception to younger women initially, with the option of expanding the scheme to older age groups after it becomes established. The Oireachtas committee on the eighth amendment recommended that universal access to free contraception be introduced alongside the legalisation of abortion in Ireland.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/simon-harris-to-give-free-contraceptives-to-women-aged-17-24-b96wkvwbc


The Louisiana Clinic At The Center Of Abortion Case Before Supreme Court

The Louisiana Clinic At The Center Of Abortion Case Before Supreme Court

December 29, 2019
Sarah McCammon

On a recent Saturday morning at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., Kathaleen Pittman was preparing for a day of procedures, as a couple dozen patients sat quietly in the waiting area.

Her clinic is challenging a law passed by Louisiana's state legislature in 2014, which requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in case of an emergency. The case, June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee, is scheduled to go before the U.S. Supreme Court next year, and the court's decision has the potential to chip away at existing precedent protecting abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2019/12/29/791514162/the-louisiana-clinic-at-the-center-of-abortion-case-before-supreme-court


Nigeria – How preference for male child fuels maternal morbidity, mortality

How preference for male child fuels maternal morbidity, mortality

By Franka Osakwe
29 December 2019

After five un-spaced pregnancies and childbirths, all through Caesarian Section (CS), 35-year-old Ngozi Egbu, a resident of Anambra State still got pregnant again because she was looking for a male child.

During her sixth pregnancy, Egbu developed complications in the seventh month and now fighting for her life at the General Hospital Awka, Anambra State.

Continued: https://guardian.ng/sunday-magazine/how-preference-for-male-child-fuels-maternal-morbidity-mortality/


Malaysia – Reproductive choices can overcome sale of illegal abortion pills

Reproductive choices can overcome sale of illegal abortion pills

John Teo
December 29, 2019

It is disheartening to note that the sale of illegal abortion pills online is proliferating. Clearly, it reflects the increasing desperate attempts by women and girls in resolving their crisis when faced with unplanned pregnancies.

While the health ministry has been clamping down on such sales, we are concerned that it may be ineffective as these sales are conducted through various platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and WeChat that appear and disappear as fast as a flash.

Continued: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2019/12/29/reproductive-choices-can-overcome-sale-of-illegal-abortion-pills/


USA – Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women’s health care

Worried about abortion laws? Catholic hospital mergers also seen as threat to women's health care

Rikha Sharma Rani
Dec 27, 2019

In 1995, Lois Uttley was working as a reproductive rights advocate in New York when the merger of two hospitals in Troy, a city near Albany, caught her off-guard.

One was secular, the other, Catholic. The secular hospital agreed to abide by rules written by Catholic bishops banning certain procedures deemed “immoral” by the church, like abortion, contraception, in-vitro fertilization and tubal ligation.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/12/27/worried-abortion-laws-more-catholic-hospitals-also-seen-threat/4269242002/